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Sunday, February 04, 2018

ICYMI: Herbst Would Target UCONN, DOT as Governor

The story following is reprinted from the Journal Inquirer as a public service.

After eight years of failed leadership that has saddled hardworking
Connecticut families and businesses with massive tax hikes, fewer jobs
and stagnant wages, I believe it's time to fundamentally upend how
business is done in Hartford.

Last week, I sat down with the Journal Inquirer to discuss my plan
to restore prosperity in Connecticut and deliver tax relief to
struggling families, retirees and businesses by dismantling the status
quo under the Gold Dome, taking-on the bloated bureaucracy in Hartford
and making UCONN live within its means.

HARTFORD — Former Trumbull First Selectman Timothy Herbst has set
his sights on eliminating waste at the University of Connecticut and
the Department of Transportation, and overhauling the state employee
pension and benefits plans in his campaign to become the state’s next
governor.

The Republican said lawmakers in Hartford have created a
“dysfunctional” environment and the next governor will be faced with a
“pervasive culture of entitlement,” of which residents have become
resentful.

There is no way to have a discussion about tax cuts, Herbst said,
without first adjusting the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition
agreement, including forcing employees to contribute more to their
pensions.

“Existing employees need to recognize that to preserve their
retirement security, they’re going to have to contribute more,” Herbst
said during an interview Wednesday with the Journal Inquirer. “New
hires are going to have to go into a defined contribution plan,” which
would, at least, stop the state’s liability from increasing.

In order to make changes, he said he would seek a “statutory
remedy” to the SEBAC deal “right out of the gate.”

He said it’s “outrageous” that employees are able to use their
mileage reimbursements when calculating their pensions.The system of collective bargaining and binding arbitration
“clearly needs to be reformed,” Herbst said. “I don’t think we have a
choice.”

After that, he said, he would propose the elimination of the estate
tax and income tax for people making $75,000 per year or less, as well
as a reduction in corporate tax rate to promote economic growth.

Herbst said other candidates who say they will eliminate the income
tax entirely are simply “pandering.”

Herbst advocated for privatizing some social services and
overhauling the Department of Motor Vehicles, which he called the
“textbook definition of a state agency that is inefficient.”Likewise, he called the Board of Regents of Higher Education “a
dumping ground for political patronage.”

“The proof of that is the president,” he said, “who, quite frankly
isn’t qualified,” but rather a political appointee. The chairman of
the board of regents is appointed by the governor. That post now is
held by Matt Fleury, who is president and CEO of the Connecticut
Science Center.

Herbst took exception to UConn and its president, Susan Herbst,
lobbying legislators for fewer cuts in the budget, turning the process
into a “political spectacle.” He added that the university should be
better at managing its money, which he said is sufficient.Herbst said that if he becomes governor, UConn’s president could be
replaced.

“If I’m elected governor, I’m going to appoint a new Board of
Trustees, and the Board of Trustees is going to make the decision as
to whether she gets appointed or reappointed,” he said. “But the Board
of Trustees that I appoint are going to very clearly know where I
stand with respect to the mission of UConn, the purpose for its
existence, what it’s there to do, and quite frankly that it’s not
going to be a bottomless pit of state taxpayer dollars.”He said he also would limit what he said is unnecessary bureaucracy
in the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the
Department of Transportation.

He said by appointing an inspector general, efficiencies could be
found throughout government, including by replacing state auditors,
many of whom are former legislators, with qualified forensic
auditors.

Regarding the state’s depleting special transportation fund, Herbst
placed much of the blame on Department of Transportation Commissioner
James P. Redeker, who Herbst said committed to operating costs without
sufficient calculations.

He said he would not consider electronic tolls or other sources of
revenue without a detailed audit of the DOT or an effective lock box
for generated revenue.

He said he would overhaul the state’s welfare system by holding
recipients accountable through periodic reporting to determine whether
people are finding work in a timely fashion.

As the son of two retired public educators, Herbst said the state’s
“huge achievement gap” is due in large part to the “fundamentally
unfair” Education Cost Sharing formula that gives more money to cities
with no evidence the increased money leads to better prepared
students.

He added that the state’s standardize tests are “increasingly
subjective,” and more emphasis should be placed on math and science,
as well as the state’s community colleges.

As Trumbull’s first selectman, Herbst said he inherited a 54
percent tax increase in the previous eight years, a shrinking grand
list, and a pension system that was only 27 percent funded.

Instead of accepting to opt in to the town’s pension plan, he
decided to enter into a defined contribution plan and insisted his
appointees did as well. Otherwise, Herbst said, he would not have been
able to convince union members to have new hires in the same plan.Further, he instituted two town ordinances mandating that annual
pension contributions be included in the town’s budget, ensuring that
previous issues would not arise once he left office.

Ultimately, Herbst was part of balancing eight budgets, which
included two tax cuts, and saw the grand list increase by more than 68
percent in eight years, all while fully funding Trumbull’s pensions,
he said.

“If we can do it at the local level, we can do it in Hartford,”
Herbst said.

Having a truly balanced budget, Herbst said, also would attract
businesses by showing investors the state is fixing its fiscal
problems. He added that the bipartisan budget was “doomed for failure
at its inception” because it was hundreds of millions of dollars out
of balance.

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